Prem Rawat (Prem Pal Singh Rawat) whose devotees call him Maharaji (meaning Ultimate Ruler) first came to attention in the West as Guru Maharaj Ji - the self-proclaimed Perfect Master and Lord of the Universe ridiculed in the media as a fat, squeaky-voiced God boy. He had inherited his titles and position as the Satguru, The True Revealer of Light and Spiritual Master of the Divine Light Mission, India (Divya Sandesh Parishad) when his father died in 1966. His father, Hans Rawat, was a successful Indian guru, self titled HRH (His Royal Highness) Yogiraj Param Sant Satgurudev Shri Hans Ji Maharaj. As a child the youngest Rawat son was informally called Sant Ji, more formally Balyogeshwar ("Born King of the Yogis") and even more formally Param Sant Satgurudev Shri Sant Ji Maharaj. In the West Rawat dropped these more verbose titles in the early 1980's and instructed his followers to call him Maharaji. He has also changed the names of his organisations many times: Divine Light Mission (DLM), World Welfare Association (WWA), World Peace Corps (WPC) and Divine United Organisation (DUO) became Elan Vital in the early 1980's and in 2001 The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) was created and from 2010 his major orgs are Words Of Peace Global (WOPG) registered in Holland, Words of Peace International (WOPI) in the USA, HDSK (Human Development through Self Knowledge) in Great Britain and Raj Vidya Kender (Royal Knowledge Society) in India. He no longer claims to be an Incarnation of God but an internationally famous humanitarian leader and teacher of peace. He's neither.

Birthday Gift, India '88 This video, titled "Birthday Gift", was filmed in 1988. It is part of a series that includes "Evolution", "Windows In Time", "I Have This Knowledge" and "Passages" that attempt to show an extremely upbeat version of Rawat's early career in the West and a coherent evolution of his career and teachings while allowing his devotees watching it to briefly relive their youth during the exciting, overtly divine and devotional, optimistic and successful public phase of his career. It is certainly not an accurate picture of the history of Rawat's life and career but it is an accurate picture of how he wanted that presented in 1989 within the constraints of available archival film. It contains a significant amount of film of Rawat's Indian trip in 1988. Possibly because it was filmed in India it does not attempt to hide Rawat's 1970's public persona as the Perfect Master and Lord of the Universe and some images of him dressed as Krishna and some of his Holy Loutus Feet are shown that were not in the abovementioned videos.

The video begins with the words Guru Maharaj Ji followed by an animation of an expanding donut of light (click for video) which opens to reveal the face and shoulders of Prem Rawat, 1988. This would be dismissed as just a cheesy introduction if you weren't aware that the first technique of meditation taught by Rawat is the Divine Light. This was originally taught in the West, in the 1970's, by the mahatma strongly squeezing the eyeballs of the initiate. This produced the effect commonly called the "golden donut" in the youthful Western communities. I presume the same was taught in India though there seems to have been slight variations in the techniques as taught by different mahatmas. Rawat standardised the techniques in 1987/88 in his 'Rejoice' meetings and taught that only a very gentle pressure should be applied on the eyeballs. The Sound technique remained the same though the use of beragons was prohibited and the Nectar technique was changed from the kechari mudra to rolling your tongue backwards but no longer trying to get the tongue past the uvula.

It is probably no exaggeration to say that Prem Rawat is obsessed with owning and flying extremely expensive executive jets. The cost of these and his requirements for luxury have been the major impediments in depressing his organisations' finances. Wherever possible, scenes of him flying his latest jet (click for video) have been a feature of his promotional videos. The usual Indian chaotic crowd scenes (click for video), Rawat driving through the crowds giving "darshan", standing on top of a tower giving satsang, sitting on top of a high stage giving satsang, a group of "mahatmas" sitting at the front of the crowd and something that was no longer being shown in the West, a zoom in on his Holy Lotus Feet. Scenes of crowd shouts of "Bhole Shri" (I guess) and throwing their arms up in synch are a too much like a Leni Riefenstahl film for me but I'm sure it was all good, clean fun.

The screen dissolves into scenes of a Holi festival. Throughout his career in the West, Rawat has remained as physically distant from his followers as possible. Not for him the up close and personal interchange of buckets of coloured water that characterises Holi in India. His version of Holi (click for video) has him on a very high stage with the world's largest and most powerful water pistol spraying the masses far below. It's a pretty good metaphor for the way he plays his role of the Master. Rawat has played practical jokes with a nasty edge on them throughout his life as the Perfect Master. Sampuranand cowers in the stairwell to avoid the powerful bast of the water gun. Rawat releases a bucket into the jet, hopefully it will be empty when it lands in the crowd. There appears to be an official cheer leader in the crowd, however his attempt at leading an "Indian wave" doesn't seem to be working.

See  Site Policy  for statement regarding copyright for these videos.

Prem Rawat's "Knowledge" has three parts: regularly listening to his speeches, doing voluntary work for organisations serving him or donating money and daily meditation correctly practicing the four techniques he recommends. The techniques are so simple it's hard to see how they could be practiced incorrectly. First technique ("Divine Light") involves sticking your thumb and middle finger on your eyeballs (NB: with eyes closed) and your index finger between your eyebrows. Second technique: ("Heavenly Music") poking your thumbs into your ears and listening. Third technique: ("Holy Name") thinking about your breathing (NB: continue to breathe). Fourth technique: ("Nectar") curling your tongue backwards and tasting. Rawat's father taught slightly different techniques but either way it's difficult to see how these could produce the benefits claimed for them especially as Rawat claims His Knowledge is the only method of attaining real happiness and love in this life.